Job Description Doesn’t Match the Hire

That’s a lost fee, and proof the job description was the wrong target from day one.

All the time you spent searching against the description went toward the wrong person.

The next time this client opens a role, you’ll be searching for the wrong person again.

A job description is written to advertise a role, not to choose between people. It lists what sounds right for the job, not what the hiring manager will actually weigh.

Those criteria were in the hiring manager’s head the whole time: what the business needs from this person, who they’ll work with, what can be trained and what can’t. Nobody asked for them at the start.

So you searched for the person on paper, and the hiring manager chose the person in their head. When the two didn’t match, the one in their head won.

The person they hired matched what they actually needed. Nobody wrote that down at the start.

• The person hired is missing requirements the job description called must-haves.
• The hire brings experience or strengths the description never mentioned.
• When you ask why they chose that person, the reasons aren’t in the job description.
• This has happened with the same client before.

• The role changed during the search. The business needs shifted, and the description was never updated.
• Someone already known won. A referral who came in during the search was easier to say yes to.
• The budget moved. Compensation went up or down, and the profile changed with it.